The CEO of a private aviation company explains the ’empty leg’ trick that can make chartering jets cheaper

• Jessica Fisher, Executive Director of Flyjets, says that people can fly privately for less money by reserving “empty sections.”
• The startup developed an “empty” concept “concept to adapt to customers flying on opposite routes.
• Fisher states that it is more affordable for customers and allows operators to generate more income.

While private flights are largely reserved for rich and celebrities, Flyjets, a charter flight market, says it can offer the average traveler an economical way to experience luxury.

Flyjet’s executive director Jessica Fisher, told Business Insider that the startup does not have or operate airplanes, but works as an airbnb for private aviation. Its main business is to serve as an intermediary between aircraft suppliers and customers to ensure and program charter flights.

Within this there is a cheaper alternative that Fisher calls “flying empty”, which according to her could reduce the cost of charter flights to almost half. It is the last way that aviation companies are trying to make private flights more affordable.

Fisher said these charter aircraft could fly “empty stretches” without passengers that return the airplanes and crew to their base after leaving a customer. Charter companies sometimes charge for a round trip regardless of whether there is someone on board, so it is cheaper to find another person who pays for that empty section of the trip.

This concept is not new. Several known private aviation companies, such as Vistajet, sell empty flights with discount after another person reserves a round trip.

But Fisher said there is no guarantee that the sections are sold and that they are normally predetermined routes, which means less options and flexibility for customers.

Fisher said that instead of taking the empty sections of other people, Flyjets fills empty planes coordinating a trip into two sections separate from the beginning and dividing the price.

“There is much that we can do in terms of being very profitable for travelers and advantageous for aircraft suppliers in terms of use of aircraft and, therefore, income,” said Fisher. “It is a situation in which everyone wins.”

Fisher says that travelers can save 40% in an ’empty leg division’

Fisher said that Flyjet clients could create empty sections through a Flyjet++membership, which costs $ 290 a year, and that flights combine with another group that flies on the opposite route.

“If two parts need to fly between New York and Miami and can commit to opposite sections, then both save 40% and the operator obtains 10% more income from both parties,” he said, adding that flying less empty planes is Better for the environment.

For example, Fisher said a seven -seater medium aircraft could cost $ 25,000 round trip for a part. But if Flyjets get a “empty sections division” for $ 15,000 in each direction, customers would pay around $ 2,100 per seat, and the plane supplier could get $ 5,000 more.

Most rates for the same route in Delta Air Lines or United Airlines cost between $ 500 and $ 1,000 per route until November.

Fisher said that when you cannot find a coincidence on the opposite route, customers will not get the “void” price, but they can still reserve the plane directly to the market rate for the charter. He argued that this scenario would be less likely as the Flyjet aircraft and customer network grows.

He said that the company also plans to launch a Flyjet Exchange tool this fall that would allow travelers to buy seats on existing trips reserved by other members.

There is an increasing trend of affordable charter

Flyjets joins a growing list of companies that offer more affordable private air trips. Experience is still expensive, but travel experts say people are willing to waste.

Oliver Bell, co -founder of a luxury travel company called Oliver’s Travels, told Mikhaila Friel de Bi in June that this trend could be attributed partly to “Revenge trip“, where people are” willing to spend more on incredible experiences “after pandemic confinements.

People who disburse money for private trips also save time. Charter flights are direct flights and usually operate from small aircraft service stations that require few or no safety control. This means that customers can reach a few minutes away from the exit and avoid agglomerations in the airport terminals.

Let’s take as an example the JSX semi -instepy airline, which offers flights through the US and Mexico in shared airplanes but with the advantages of a private trip. The shortest flights, such as Las Vegas to Bubank, California, cost around $ 275 per route, while the longest routes along the east coast begin around $ 700.

Kinectair promotes himself as a shared travel service for heaven. A CNN report in December said that Kinectair sold short repositioning flights with empty legs throughout the United States and offered lower prices (up to 111 dollars per person) using more cheaper piston and turbohere planes instead of jets. The problem is that the company cannot sell individual seats, so the traveler has to reserve the full plane.

Of course, flying by private plane “is not in any way a ‘cheap’ shape of flying, since it will normally remain more expensive than a commercial flight,” Bell said. “But it is much more accessible than people think, which could explain why we are seeing an increase now that people are becoming more conscious.”

Correction: August 23, 2024: An earlier version of this story included Netjets as one of the companies that sells empty flights with discount.